Household appliances such as washing machines, dryers, especially tumble dryers, and combined washers/drawers are known which comprise a user interface element and a group of lights. The user interface element is usually used to select and/or to display a program or parameters of a selected program. Different versions of user elements are known such as rotary knobs or push buttons. Light elements on a user interface can indicate selected programs, options or states of the machine.
The DE 40 31 266 A1 describes a household appliance which comprises rotary user elements and user interface elements which are built as push switches for inputting programs or functions. While a rotary knob can be used to select a temperature for a washing routine for laundry, the push switches allow selecting additional functions.
The DE 199 08 363 A1 discloses a program-controlled household appliance with a rotatable user interface element which is built as a rotational knob and push-button switches. The rotational knob at three positions is surrounded by three light elements which correspond to three program groups. If the knob position corresponds to a selection of an item of one of these groups, the corresponding light element is illuminated. A vertical row of light elements is configured to indicate the degree of drying reached, by respective illumination. A further light element in this row indicates the activation of an anti-crease-program or the end of the selected program.
The light arrangement on such household appliances usually takes a considerate space on a user-accessible part of the washing machine and is not available for other devices or user interacting components which for user accessibility are arranged in a similar region of the appliance.